This week, as a Chicago native, the euphoria of the Bears continuing their resurgence on the field with a win over the Detroit Lions yesterday is being dampened by this video from the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). On the video, a young man knocks out an elderly man as others laugh and cheer.

While a woman is seen kneeling over the victim, the video shows friends laughing and boasting “he knocked his ass out.” It is truly scary to see such inhumanity and cruelty. These are young people who clearly have lost every ounce of decency in their lives and enjoy watching the suffering of others. Just when I develop hope for our species, I see a video like this and fall into a deep depression.

Fortunately, the video does capture the face of the attacker and the faces of some of his cohorts. We may be able to see some justice if the police work the case. Normally, this type of case would be dismissed as a minor incident, but if bloggers spread the word and show the video, the police may feel more pressure to work the case and find the culprits.

Lets hope the power of the Internet comes into play here. Identification should not be a problem and a few hundred, or few thousand, emails to the police chief and the mayor will create a pressure that cannot be ignored. I hope.

Not knowing the gentlemen,but seeing elderly men like him in my everyday life,I really feel this situation and many thanks to the lady who got involved.It seems as if she was dialing for help and just knelling down to see what she could do.THANK YOU!!!

Thise ‘people’, even the penn state rioters, they do not see this as something real, this is the stuff of their everyday videogames. Reality is played for TV and presented as real when you know much of it is false and staged. Photoshopping makes the fake look real and the real fake. Sadly, it does not surprise me when the younger generation behaves this way. Nothing but another video game scenario.

Carol Levy, while I agree that the actions are despicable, by a kid who was probably raised by his peers with a lack of respect for the elderly, and to look down upon those labelled as Uncs and Whinos (homeless elderly depending on the region), to the point that he thought it was cool to show off by testing his right hook on one. Hopefully that is the only time he has done it and if found realizes how idiotic his actions were.

I don’t think it has any more to do with graphic video games, explicit music, or violent movies than it does a lack of parenting. I don’t profess to know the kid, but would anyone be surprised if he and/or several of his cohorts have no father figure (quite common in inner city Chicago). Assuming the one video taping is with them he obviously has no sense, as to upload that to youtube and think its not incriminating. Still as bad as I feel for the old man who was knocked out, I can’t help but feel for the youth who seem to think this is normal. I spoke with an elderly black couple last night who talked of how things used to be about just having fun in the 60s and 70s. In my stream of conscious writing I am considering retracting my earlier statement. Maybe it is a combination of all those things at fault here, but I can’t imagine how different these youth may have been if raised in that period.